


Is Tradition Logical?

by Anonymous



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen, Tradition v. Logic, Vulcan Culture, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 11:33:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30122118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: The movement against child-bonding on Vulcan gains a supporter...
Relationships: Stonn/T'Pring (Star Trek)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2
Collections: Worldbuilding Exchange 2021





	Is Tradition Logical?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PrairieDawn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrairieDawn/gifts).



Vulcans do not gossip.

Rumors are illogical. 

Of course, it is permissible to report information that might not be true as long as the concerns about its validity are accurately relayed.

And Vulcans, for all that they are often cast as logical foils to emotionally driven humans, can be curious to a fault. This curiosity is not limited to science, as many non-Vulcans imagine. There is no Vulcan equivalent of “curiosity killed the cat” – indeed, curiosity is encouraged.

It is also considered logical to gather data – including unexpected data – and extrapolate from that data, and sharing one’s extrapolations and assessments is not gossip, or spreading rumors.

It is merely relaying information.

So it was noted by numerous Vulcans that despite a previously announced betrothal between Spock, son of Sarek, and the Vulcan lady T’Pring, the expected announcement of their marriage never appeared. Instead, an announcement of marriage between T’Pring and Stonn appeared shortly after a confirmed visit to Vulcan by the Enterprise, the Starfleet ship Spock was stationed aboard. Spock was known to have left aboard the ship at the end of the visit.

As Ambassador Sarek – a well-known public figure, and thus one whose movements and actions were reported – was known to have had Spock bonded as a child, these facts taken together could only signify one thing. It was something that was whispered among many Vulcans who belonged to the same circles as Sarek and Spock and T’Pring, something to be discussed quietly because it was not for outsiders. 

Yet some things could not be kept quiet.

The information – the hypothesis – that T’Pring had chosen the _kal-if-fee_ , the challenge rather than the marriage – made the rounds swiftly. Only those members of the wedding party present knew what had actually happened, and they refused to speak. Yet, based on their knowledge of their own traditions, the _kal-if-fee_ , with T’Pring choosing someone besides her now-partner Stonn, must have occurred. It was traditionally a fight to the death, and yet both Spock and Stonn lived. Yet bondings, by tradition, could not simply be dissolved without negotiation and agreement from both families. It was rarely done, and generally indicated a cooling of relations between the families involved.

The fact that there were no answers forthcoming from any of the principals did not stop speculation, especially among a growing segment of the Vulcan population that was beginning to question the concept of bonding children. 

*** 

T’Pring was intrigued to receive a request for a meeting from T’Falae to discuss the question of bonding children. 

In the seven years since T’Pring had challenged her own bonding, and secured the freedom to choose her own partner, she had met polite probes for information with a wall of equally polite refusal. She stayed informed about current events, and was aware that a segment of the Vulcan population was discussing the necessity of child bondings, but she had never been directly approached by any of the people involved in the discussion. 

T’Falae, daughter of Sokal, was quickly becoming the public representative of those who opposed bonding until both parties were adults.

That intrigue, that curiosity, led to T’Pring accepting T’Falae’s request. She was not sure what exactly the other woman had in mind, but presumed that it would be an attempt to draw her public support for the movement.

Since the _kal-if-fee_ , since she had played the odds to obtain the partner she chose – the partner she desired, not one selected for her by her parents, not one chosen for his lineage and wealth, not a legend but the one she wanted – T’Pring had kept her silence. It was a rare event for _kal-if-fee_ to take place in this modern age, and T’Pring did not care to be the subject of talk. 

Her father had been less than pleased with the loss of prestige and the alliance with the clan of Sarek, the clan of T’Pau, especially with the loss of the marriage settlements. Their own clan had sufficient wealth – T’Pring herself had sufficient wealth – so she had simply allowed her father to express his displeasure, then gone on with her life. She was an adult, well past the age when she should have married, due to Spock’s career. 

She was under no obligation to Spock’s family to stay silent, T’Pring told herself. Her silence had been for herself, because just as she had not desired to be the consort of a legend, she also did not care to have her private life dissected in public.

Yet perhaps now, she mused, it was time to make another choice. 

*** 

Excitement was not a Vulcan trait. T’Falae had reacted quite logically when she had received the acceptance from T’Pring, and she had not displayed unseemly emotion – not even when she was alone in her office. After all, T’Pring was the highest-ranking person to respond to her query positively. 

T’Falae had been trying for four years to bring more public attention to the question of whether child bondings met the needs of modern Vulcan society. She was quite willing to acknowledge that they had played a vital role in the past, but it was illogical to continue doing things just because they had been done in the past. 

It was no longer a common thing in the modern Vulcan middle-class, the professionals and educators who did not claim descent from the leading families of Surak’s age, but T’Falae was not satisfied with that victory. She wanted to bring a change to all of Vulcan. 

T’Falae herself was unbonded, despite being a member of one of those leading families. She had been bonded as a child, but her bond-mate had died in a vehicle accident before his first _pon farr_. There were rare families that did not bond their children, either due to parental disinclination or because a suitable match had not been found. There was a smaller population with circumstances similar to T’Falae, but the majority of her peers had not only been bonded by their parents but intended to bond their children.

Later, as an adult, she had found that her chances of finding a new bond-mate were constrained, partly due to the prevalence of child-bonding. It was one of the things that had propelled her to look more deeply at the issue. If she wished to find a partner, she was limited to Vulcan men who had either not been bonded – a pool that had experienced a sudden decrease due to the biological effects of _pon farr_ – or to finding one whose bond-mate was deceased. 

Despite her father’s assertions to the contrary, T’Falae was not involved in the issue solely for personal reasons. To her, it was her duty – every Vulcan’s duty – to fight against illogical actions. This restriction of choice for outdated reasons was just such an illogical action.

She was hopeful that T’Pring would make a welcome addition to the group, even if it was not logical or realistic to expect more women to demand the _kal-if-fee_ , since that came with the risk of death for a Vulcan male who’d had no more choice than the woman he was bonded to. T’Falae was well-aware that T’Pring must have demanded the challenge – there were simply no other logical explanations. The more support their group could demonstrate from leading families, the better their chances of achieving the goal of stopping child bonding, of helping more Vulcans examine the circumstances and come to the most logical course of action.

*** 

T’Pring waited until T’Falae had cleared the grounds of the estate before consulting her computer terminal. If she was going to break her silence about the _kal-if-fee_ , she intended to do so in a way that would bring the most publicity to the movement. It was only logical that her actions were timed to have the greatest possible impact. She was prepared for the disapproving weight of tradition, prepared for unpleasantness from her father and the rest of her clan.

She would not permit it to prevent her from using her influence on this subject.

Moving forward, using her story to benefit Vulcans who would follow after her, was a logical step.

It was, T’Pring had decided coolly, the only logical step. She would wait two years before making any public announcement, but until then she could certainly leverage some of her wealth to assist the unit. T’Falae might not desire such a lengthy delay in the public support, but T’Pring was confident that the result of the delay would benefit the cause.

After all, what better time to announce that she had indeed demanded the _kal-if-fee_ , the only option left to her by the so-called logical tradition then pairing it with the announcement that she and Stonn would not be bonding their daughter T’Pela?

Her father, and indeed the rest of her clan, would not appreciate it, and she doubted that Spock’s clan would be supportive, but she had to act as her logic dictated.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! I was intending to go in another direction, but this seemed like the most logical way to tackle the prompt.
> 
> References, of course, to Amok Time.


End file.
